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Tag Archives: Sacramental

December finds himself again a child
Even as he undergoes his age.
Cold and early darkness now descends,
Embracing sanctuaries of delight.
~Nicholas Gordon

Why do we feel restored in December
As in a sacramental time and place?
Therein Mystery is artfulness,
And therein too a vision of peace is stored,
So that healing flows from it through our eyes.
~Edited and adapted excerpt
from May Sarton

As the year draws to an end and winter and Christmas approach, “Shall we liken what has and is coming to pass to the web in a loom? There have been and still are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something very beautiful, something which compels our attempt at understanding.” ~Edited & adapted excerpt by Earl W. Count

Spring is coming! Its earliest harbingers have arrived to tell me so. And with it, as always, comes a heightened sense of awe and wonder, a sense of such that I acquired at a very early age. Thus I look not outside Creation nor separate from it, to find God. The words of Romans 1:20 in Scripture intimates that “the world is a place of revelation and the whole of life is sacramental.” So it is that Creation is enough to reveal God to humanity, but it is not enough for its salvation. For that we need Jesus, the Messiah; He is the only one who has the ability to offer us salvation. Thankfully, with a profession of faith that He is Lord and a penitent heart, it is ours for the asking.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I(Jesus) will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” ~Matthew 11:28-30 ✝

This the garden’s magic,
That through the sunny hours
The gardener who tends it,
Himself outgrows his flowers.

He grows by gift of patience,
Since he who sows must know
That only in the Lord’s good time
Does any seedling grow.

He learns from buds unfolding,
From each tight leaf unfurled,
That his own heart, expanding,
Is one with all the world.

He bares his head to sunshine,
His bending back a sign
Of grace, and ev’ry shower becomes
His sacramental wine.

And when at last his labors
Bring forth the very stuff
And substance of all beauty
This is reward enough.
~Marie Nettleton Carroll

Patience, what a difficult thing to master! At least it has been and still is for me at times. But as Emerson and Carroll assert, part of a garden’s magic is the gift of patience. So among other things I am learning that the anticipation of what unfolds from within the bud is almost as sweet as the blossom itself. Emory Austen said, “Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.” With that in mind I’m gonna be patient this week, be glad my snapdragons are blooming, believe that rain will come, and sing away as I continue to wait for my tulips to unfurl and this decade-long drought to end.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. ~Romans 8:25 ✝